British golf breathed a sigh of relief as Lee Westwood declared himself fit
for next week’s Open Championship.

The world No 3 showed no ill-effects following his fall on Saturday. Westwood, who slipped on his way to the first tee before posting a 76 in the third round, shrugged off any concern to record a one-under 70 in the final round of the French Open and climbed 18 places to 40th.

“The leg is fine – it wasn’t a problem today,” said Westwood, who under advice from his fitness consultant, Steve McGregor, decided not to withdraw at Le Golf National. Westwood now has the opportunity to rest up for a week as he is not playing in this week’s Scottish Open before travelling to Lytham at the weekend.

The grand Versailles stage was thus left for Germany’s Marcel Siem to haul himself into the world’s top 100. Eight years after his only previous European Tour victory, the 31 year-old collected a cheque for £420,000 with a brilliant, closing 67.

Last year’s champion, Thomas Levet, jumped into the lake to celebrate and broke his leg; but thrilled though he was and excitable though he is – nobody gives more fist-pumps on the course – Siem sensibly decided to stay out of the water.

“I’m just going to have some nice French champagne,” said Siem, who also earned a spot at Royal Lytham. “It means a lot to me. So many tournaments I kind of destroyed already this year, I’m so happy I got it done in the end.

“I was very nervous. The last stretch is one of the toughest stretches we have on tour and I made some great shots. I hit it close on 15, made a great shot on 16 and on 17 I even hit the flag. I stayed very calm. It’s all about winning in the end and now I’m in the Open, which is unbelievable.”

Francesco Molinari, the Italian who, two years ago, lost a play-off in the same event to Miguel Ángel Jiménez, threatened to pull off an astonishing win despite double-bogeying the opening hole. He was eight behind at that point, but then nine birdies set the target with a best-of-the-week 64.

Siem was joint leader at the time and responded by splashing out of the sand to seven feet at the long 14th, then hitting a glorious iron to four feet on the dangerous 15th. There were still three tough holes to come, but he parred the first two and after driving into a bunker on the last, achieved the bogey which he knew was good enough.

The main French hope Raphaël Jacquelin could have forced a sudden-death by holing his second to the 18th, but a par four left him third on his own on six under. One stroke further back were the English trio of Ian Poulter, David Lynn and joint overnight leader David Howell.

While Howell could never make amends for bogeying two of the first three holes, Poulter had a share of the lead for a while, but bogeyed the final two holes for a 69.